[3117] Staff training discusses root causes for exodus of youths from churches and explores solutions

Staff training discusses root causes for exodus of youths from churches and explores solutions

Reported by Chen Yi-hsuan

Written by Lydia Ma

In face of the mass exodus of youths from churches, Nanmen Presbyterian Church in Tainan recently began hosting a seminar series entitled “Being there for youths during struggling times.” The seminars will be held every Sunday afternoon and anyone interested in youth ministries is welcome to attend. The first seminar was held on November 20, 2011.

These seminars typically begin a time of Bible study followed by a book study of Les Parrott’s “Helping Your Struggling Adolescent.” Discussions that follow from this study are open and free, with emphasis on listening to others and fellowshipping with others.

The coordinator for this seminar is Nanmen Church’s intern seminarian, Wu Ming-han, who is currently a student of Tainan Theological College and Seminary. After getting to know Nanment church, Wu noticed that many of its youths no longer show up after graduating from high school. Upon further investigation, he discovered that some youths had gone to other churches while others were no longer Christians. At the crux of the problem was that Nanmen Church wasn’t equipped to minister to senior high school and college age youths.

With this seminar series, he hopes that it will attract young adults and church leaders to read Parrott’s book and engage in heartfelt and free discussions. His seminars usually begin with reading a passage from the Bible where participants are invited to share their views on what they think the passage means. Following this segment, Wu begins to tell a story related to psychology and participants are invited to take turns to invent their version of how the story progresses next and ends.

Wu said that as soon as people begin to share their thoughts and understanding of an issue, they are simultaneously prompted to examine why they think of certain things in certain ways. Similarly, those who are listening are also enlightened by different perspectives they’d never thought about before.

Wu conceded that it’s impossible to avoid disagreements and conflicts in church, but he underscored that communication and listening to one another was vital. He hoped that this seminar would help people become better at speaking out and listening.